Zoox starts commercial operation of autonomous taxis Uber commits to 10 billion dollars to deploy 120000 driverless vehicles

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) granted an exemption to Zoox, owned by Amazon, allowing it to operate a fleet of up to 2,500 autonomous vehicles commercially for two years. The vehicles are designed without a steering wheel or pedals, and the exemption opens the door for any autonomous-vehicle developer that wants to launch a service without traditional driving controls, including Tesla and the two-seat Cybercab.

In parallel, Uber unveiled its autonomous-vehicle empire: a commitment of $10 billion to deploy 120,000 driverless vehicles “over the coming years.” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi confirmed the figure in the earnings call, matching the Financial Times analysis. Uber is not a technology developer but a fleet coordinator: it has invested in Waymo, Nuro, Joby Aviation for aerial transport, and has signed partnerships with Lucid and Alphabet.

Regionally notable: Moove, which began as a vehicle-financing company for app drivers in Africa, has grown into the owner of a large fleet (42,000 vehicles in 13 countries) and a Waymo fleet operator in Phoenix, Miami, Las Vegas and later London. The company, now based in Dubai, raised $250 million in a Series C round led by Mubadala Investment Company with Woven Capital and Ion Pacific, at a $2.1 billion valuation. Moove plans to hire 350 people and expand its autonomous-vehicle fleet management, and says it intends to purchase Waymo cars and vehicles from another, unnamed company.

What this means for mobility in the Gulf:Dubai (Smart Mobility Strategy 2030, target of 25 % autonomous trips by 2030), Riyadh (public-transport project, NEOM, The Line) and Abu Dhabi (Pilot autonomous-vehicle project) are studying autonomous-fleet operating models. Moove, as a fleet operator backed by Mubadala and based in Dubai, becomes a locally replicable model: it does not develop the technology but manages its deployment, maintenance and financing, playing a vital role in the value chain.

Also: NVIDIA launched the Alpamayo 2 Super autonomous-driving model under an open licence on Hugging Face, permitting commercial use and derivatives, thereby lowering the entry barrier for autonomous-driving developers in the region.

Additional points from the briefing: Joby Aviation is partnering with Atoms for Travis Kalanick, the former Uber CEO, to develop transport modules serving aerial taxis and ground autonomous vehicles in Florida, New York, Texas and California. Ford named its midsize electric car Fathom, with a starting price of $28,350 for the 2027 launch. Lucid plans to allocate $1.4 billion and has pushed the Cosmos launch to the second half of 2027, betting on an autonomous-taxi program with Uber and Nuro.